Religious Right Will Now Start Caterwauling About HGTV Calling Off Show Hosted By Bigots

You may have seen the news that HGTV had planned a new show called “Flip It Forward,” another from their long line-up of real estate/renovation shows, to be hosted by twin brothers David and Jason Benham:

“Flip It Forward,” which was scheduled to premier in October, was supposed to feature David and Jason Benham as they helped families buy, repair, and sell real estate.

The twins will “leverage their good-natured sibling rivalry to help families find a fixer-upper and transform it into the dream home they never thought they could afford,” the network said in a press release announcing nine new series for next season.

However, very quickly, news started to spread that these boys have been quite the anti-gay activists, and that’s really not socially acceptable for HGTV’s demographic, and they quickly pulled the show. Sample David’s belief that fighting against gays is just like fighting against Nazis:

“If evil is being accepted and appreciated at the national level, aggressive Christian men must lead the charge against it,” David Benham wrote. “In the late 1940s England realized this truth with Neville Chamberlain’s Policy of Appeasement and the Nazi regime. Chamberlain thought he could somehow ‘appease’ the fuehrer, yet Winston Churchill aggressively stood against this policy and proclaimed that they must kill Hitler and destroy the regime in its entirety. It wasn’t long before Chamberlain’s ‘politically correct’ policy fell flat on its face, and Churchill – the more aggressive man – took the reins and joined America in defeating the beast.”

David Benham also suggested in the Christian Post that support for marriage equality was the result of psychological issues.

“For the men on the other side of this vote, I’ll say a couple of things: You’ll never find the love of a father in the arms of another man,” he wrote. “The emotional hurt that you’ve experienced can only be healed through a life-giving relationship with the very one that created you.”

That’s strange, because real mental health experts long ago disabused the world of the silly notion that people are gay because of absent fathers. Perhaps David didn’t get the message.

Here’s more of David’s hate speech, this time in a conversation with conservative radio host Janet Mefferd:

It’s also been noted that David and Jason have a notorious family connection to contend with:

The brothers are the sons of Flip Benham, leader of the abortion-clinic protest group Operation Save America, which split from the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue in the late 1990s.

The elder Benham baptized Norma McCorvey – the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision – and protested outside mosques while shouting “Jesus hates Muslims” and blamed the Democratic Party for promoting a “culture of death” that caused the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Flip Benham was convicted in 2011 of stalking a Charlotte, N.C., abortion provider and sentenced to 18 months probation.

So, as I said, the religious right will be caterwauling about this any minute, about how somehow the Benham boys’ religious freedom or freedom of speech is being trampled upon. It will be as predictable as it is completely wrong. What’s really happened here is that to the great majority of Americans, those sorts of fringe, hateful views are no longer socially acceptable. Dan Savage captured what’s happening quite well:

[T]he real story here is that we are rapidly approaching the tipping point that I’ve been talking and writing about for years.

Once upon a time white people used to be able to go on TV and say the most racist shit imaginable (argue against legal interracial marriage, argue in favor of segregation) and keep their jobs and be invited back on TV to say that shit a second time. Then one day you couldn’t say that shit (not on TV, at least) and keep your job and be invited back to say that shit again. Opinions that used to be considered “respectable” were suddenly toxic career enders. We are rapidly reaching the same tipping point on LGBT issues. You can believe whatever you want, but you have to be careful when and how you express your anti-gay animus. Because it could cost you.

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19 Comments

Exactly what I thought, especially the one on the left in the picture. That boy needs to come out of the closet. He will never be happy otherwise!

etseqMay 7, 2014 at 8:45 pm -

The real question is whether our Homocons and their allegedly “liberal” fellow travellers who signed that ridiculous public statement defending Eich will double down and accuse the rest of us of being “illiberal” I’m looking at you Jim, Timothy & Rob at BTB.

Anti-gay men are often very closeted gay men. Been there–back in the 50s!

Peter HargmierMay 8, 2014 at 8:38 am -

“In the late 1940s England realized this truth with Neville Chamberlain’s Policy of Appeasement ”

Umm, try the late 1930s.

“and Churchill – the more aggressive man – took the reins and joined America in defeating the beast.””

What? Britain declared war in 1939, the US didnt join the war ’till December 1941.

Bigots disregard for historical accuracy strikes again.

Jon in CanadaMay 8, 2014 at 10:38 am -

I noticed that too. They can’t even get their history straight (oh look, a pun). They must belong to that strain of American who believes no one else was involved in anything of note after 1776……..what rubes.

As for their anti-gay rants, they rate a 10.9 on the Eich-scale.

Priya LynnMay 8, 2014 at 12:44 pm -

Right, because it goes without saying that if anything important happened around the world Americans must have been at the centre of it from the beginning.

The United States under Dear Leader, has become a very frightening place, thanks to the thought Nazis on the left. Should a person dare to disagree with or criticize one of the sacred cows of the left, blacks, gays, and women, the jackbooted thugs of groups like this one, or Right Wing Watch, will destroy you… unless of course, you’re a lefty yourself. Did Harry Reid suffer any ill consequences after the ridiculous racist comments he made about Obama ? When Bill Clinton took advantage of a young female employee of his and had her surviving him under his desk in the Oval Office, was he attacked by the left. Nope. It all was a vast Right Wing Conspiracy and the left destroyed the 21,year old intern. Talk about a war on women, where was Maureen Dowd and the rest of the loud mouth feminists when that happened. We heard nary a peep. Keep it up thought Nazis and the country will turn against you in a big way !

PMay 9, 2014 at 11:11 am -

Oh boy, barely literate ravings and threats of violence. How new. The tune of the Right is really a broken record isn’t it?

Priya LynnMay 9, 2014 at 11:36 am -

Typical dishonesty of a conservative. Only one man was responsible for the Monica Lewinsky affair and you blame all liberals for it by absurdly claiming that incident means the left has a war on women. No, the only war on women is by conservatives, and its not just one conservative who’s attacked women, its the vast majority of all conservative politicians who’ve attempted to deny women the right to abortion and contraceptives, who’ve cut food and other aid to low income pregnant women, voted against pay equity legislation, cut funding to plan parenthood’s health services for women.

Republicans not only want to reduce women’s access to abortion care, they’re actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven’t yet. Shocker.

A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to “accuser.” But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.”

Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids’ preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.

In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)

In 2011 alone the Republican-controlled House cast 55 votes for anti-women policies that undermine women’s health, roll back women’s rights, and defund programs and institutions that provide support for women.

DanielMay 9, 2014 at 11:45 am -

You poor Christians. You are so oppressed when you aren’t able to force your beliefs on others. Poor dears.

MerlynneHerneMay 11, 2014 at 5:19 pm -

Oh, waaaah! Your ilk persecuted and harassed LGBT people for centuries. Now that we are fighting back you start screaming “Victim!” “Persecution!”, etc. No one is persecuting you or these two characters. What we are doing is putting you on notice that your bigotry is no longer acceptable.

CJMay 12, 2014 at 10:52 am -

well said! :D

DaveMay 9, 2014 at 12:40 pm -

Dear outraged Christian nut jobs:

If you want them to have a TV show so badly, use your own money to put it on one of your existing networks, or start a new network. You would have all the control over what you air and they (and you) could preach all they want. Good luck trying to find sponsors though – most companies shy away from blatant bigotry. I know – why don’t you hit up all your televangelist buddies. They can scam elderly people out of more of their life’s savings to pay for your shows. At their age, they don’t need too much food or medication anyway. There are a couple of bakeries, florists and at least one photographer you can try to get to sponsor they show as well.

DougMay 9, 2014 at 1:54 pm -

Of course all the usual suspects are now wailing persecution and discrimination for these poor God fearing, loving boys by the mean horrible gay agenda. And their lemmings are eating it up, as expected. The HGTV facebook page is full of it.

And of course, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dummer say they are either misunderstood, or being lied about.

When, when WHEN will a reporter finally sit down with these 2, or any of the others, and play clip for clip each video, audio recording, each documented statement, and ask them on camera to “explain the misunderstanding” for each one.

BarryMay 13, 2014 at 5:55 pm -

You’ll never convince me that one or even both these guys aren’t gay themselves.

Chris LamparelloMay 14, 2014 at 8:19 am -

“For the men on the other side of this vote, I’ll say a couple of things: You’ll never find the love of a father in the arms of another man,” he wrote. “The emotional hurt that you’ve experienced can only be healed through a life-giving relationship with the very one that created you.”

I happen to have a great relationship with my father. In fact, we’ve gone on fifteen vacations together. Yes, fifteen. I haven’t heard of many straight men who have done so. These two guys are incredibly, and predictably, sanctimonious. We get the “I’m warning you of the path you’re on because I *love* you.”

What’s more, I was a born again Christian for fifteen years (don’t ask). While seeking the so-called “life-giving relationship with the very one that created you,” I wallowed in the company of people who were uneducated, ignorant and desperate for some sense of identity. They were proud of the fact that they rejected science in favor of the “Adam and Eve” fairy tale. They were often mean and exclusionary. They’d start out gushing over you, telling you how much they loved you.

Then, they’d discover something about you that didn’t exactly jive with them, and the shunning would occur. People watched what they said for fear of offending someone; they all toed the official line. They could turn on a dime, and often did. That isn’t truth, and it isn’t love. I used to become furious with these types. These days, however, I feel sorry for them. Here are two brothers who have descended into the nonsensical talk about demons and the lures of Satan. Far from being “saved,” these people are actually incredibly lost.

(lower case) emmaMay 18, 2014 at 7:10 pm -

As twins, I’m going to guess their hatred of the gay, happened back when they were young boys, and they compared “pee pee’s.” When they were comparing, they accidently touched, their daddy caught them, beat the hell out of them. and now they hate the gayz

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